Feminist Future

By Katie Card (she/they) University of Maine Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies student and Mabel Wadsworth Center intern

At the time of writing this, it’s the fall of my junior year in college. Five semesters down, three more to go (at least, that’s the hope). I’m over halfway to the “real world,” where I’ll spend the rest of my life… working. That thought looms over me, that something that has been part of my life since I was four– school– will be over soon, and that I’ll be more or less on my own from there on out. For some, the idea of finishing up schooling and doing something with all they’ve learned, making a change in the world, is exhilarating. We’re expected to know what we want our life to be like far too early. But what about those who don’t know, who can’t for the life of them make a decision, especially one so important as a career?

I’m a Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies major, with a minor in Media Studies (which is within communication and journalism; not New Media, which it is commonly confused for). Every time I’m asked the standard, “So, what are you studying?”, I almost immediately know how that conversation will go: 

“Huh, what’s that?” Either genuine confusion or just not even attempting to process it.

“Oh, um, ok,” usually with disgust and/or disappointment. 

Or, the most common, “What are you going to do with it?”

I’m sure most of the people who respond with the latter don’t mean any harm with that question. Sure, some may be, because it is a field often looked down upon by others, seen as useless or stupid or some SJW bull (growing up in rural Maine, I’ve gotten that vibe more times than I can count). Others are genuinely curious– it’s not a prevalent major by far, and sometimes people have just never heard of it. To answer that question with a Liberal Arts field is to open up a Pandora’s Box of questions about what you want to do with your life once you graduate. Apparently majoring in something not business, education, or STEM related is abnormal to some.

I grew up with the expectation that I would attend higher education. College and university may not be the right fit for everyone, but access should not be based on privilege. I had, and still have, that privilege– white, middle class, able-bodied, had educational and extracurricular opportunities that others were not afforded. I don’t want to brag (I hate attention), but I was a good student, and teachers expected certain things from me. So, when I said I would be attending my state school to study Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, the discomfiture was palpable. Why didn’t I try to get into “better” schools? (They’re too costly, too far from home, I didn’t want that stress, state schools are not bad schools.) Why didn’t I want to go into engineering, mathematics, computer science, biology, chemistry, law, medicine? (Because I’m just not interested in those fields.)

Why did I choose WGS? Because it interests me. Because the concepts that these courses focus on directly apply to and impact my life. Because I grew up confused, knowing I was different from those around me but too scared to find out why. I chose Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies because I wanted to. 

WGS to me is liberating, it puts words and theories to experiences that I, and people like me around the world, have lived through. It creates a space where I know my identities will be accepted, even if I can’t put words to them all the time. These are not topics that I was taught growing up, and I have chosen this for myself. 

I know that others don’t have the liberty to feel the same: Some go on to higher education so they can find a good career path, something that can support them financially, even if they don’t enjoy it, because they need to. It’s how you get by in our messed-up, capitalist society. But I didn’t want that. I don’t want that. I didn’t want to be in a field of work that I despised, even if it paid well. There’s more to life than work, right? 

Do I know what I’ll do once I graduate? I won’t lie to you and say yes. I haven’t the faintest idea what I want to do with my life, and at times it’s incredibly nerve racking. But why should I be expected to have my life all planned out at the age of 21? I didn’t go into WGS expecting to get a massive payout at the end: I went into it because I knew I would enjoy it, that I would spend my 4 years here studying a topic I genuinely love and am interested in. 

So, what am I going to do with it? I don’t know. And isn’t that beautiful? To have all those possibilities ahead of me?